Pages

Long Image

Topics:

Friday, January 20, 2012

Cloth Diapers: Week Ten

10 weeks already? My oh my!

I still love singing the praises of cloth! At this point, all of the diapers have "that smell" in them for which I've been trying different remedies. The smell isn't horrible or even noticeable unless you're nose is practically touching it to take a whiff, but I just want to make sure it doesn't get worse. First we tried doing an extra rinse (on top of the double rinse) and it kind of worked. There are many home remedies like vinegar, baking soda, etc. We bought bumGenius odor remover that we use to pre-treat the diapers as soon as we remove them from her bum. There's still a little bit of a smell so I'm going to add some baking soda to my next laundry load. I'll check back in a few weeks.

12 bumGenius and 1Blueberry cloth diaper

(Not pictured: 3 more bumGenius and 2 Bum Cheeks)

I discovered a new trick for the poo (until we get our diaper sprayer): Because we have hundreds of plastic grocery bags, I'm now using them to dispose of the poopy wipes as well as "scoop" excess poop from the diapers. We were scraping it into the toilet, but we could never get it all with toilet paper. Instead, I just "scoop" it out with my hand inside of the bag, then turn the bag inside out. It's gross but it sure beats having it sit in the pail then go into my washing machine!

In terms of saved money, I'm adjusting my original calculations based on our Christmas experience. When we used disposables for a full day during Christmas, Joanna went through 10 disposables instead of her usual 6-7 cloth. On top of that, she's now going through 7-8 cloth diapers instead of 6-7. This means we would be going through 3 packs every 2 weeks so we're really saving $18 a week instead of $12. I'm counting $18 a week since Week 4:

Investment: $100

Total Savings: $162

Return on Investment: $62

Because we "earned" $62, I bought 3 more diapers (2 bumGenius and 1 Blueberry that has giraffes on it) and the bumGenius spray. So now the return on investment is down to $2, but that's okay.

Personal Investment: $160

Total Savings: $162

Return on Investment: $2

In 3 weeks, we're going to buy a diaper sprayer with our savings- I can't wait!